Treasury Committee
COVID-19 - Treasury Committee publishes Terms of Reference for next stage of inquiry - 24 April 2020
The House of Commons Treasury Committee has published its Terms of Reference for the next stage of its inquiry into the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inquiry was launched on 18 March 2020. The next stage of the inquiry will examine the operational effectiveness, cost and sustainability of the Government and Bank of England financial support packages. This will include consideration of: (i) how, and to what extent, the financial services sector is supporting and helping businesses to access advice on available grants and loans; and (ii) what financial regulators and the financial sector are doing to reduce the risk of fraud.
Although there is no specific deadline for the submission of evidence, comments should ideally be made by the end of May 2020.
Press release: Treasury Committee publishes Terms of Reference for next stage of its inquiry into the economic effects of COVID-19
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Financial Conduct Authority
COVID-19 - FCA publishes details of delayed activities and planned regulatory changes - 30 April 2020
The FCA has published a new webpage detailing its planned activities that will be delayed or postponed in light of the disruption caused by COVID-19. These activities are ones which are not critical to protecting customers and market integrity in the short-term and their delay or postponement will allow firms to focus on supporting customers during this period.
Among other things, the FCA confirms that it is extending the closing dates for all open consultations and calls for input until 1 October 2020 and is rescheduling most other planned work until Q2 and Q3 2020. The FCA also states that it has scaled back its routine business interactions to cover only business-critical requests and responses on COVID-19-related issues.
The FCA intends to continue with a small number of regulatory changes that support consumers, particularly vulnerable consumers, or where major long-term programmes would otherwise be disrupted.
A full list of the affected consultations, calls for input, other publications and rule changes can be found on the FCA website.
FCA webpage on delayed activities and planned regulatory changes in light of COVID-19
